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NDP’s Andrea Horwath still won’t release election platform

New Democrat leader says platform has some ‘sensible’ ideas in it but refused to say when it will be released.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says a New Democrat government would increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour and tie it to inflation while cutting small business taxes by $90 million a year. (Richard Brennan / Toronto Star)

New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath says she will release her election platform when she’s ready and not before.

Howarth was asked why she wasn’t releasing that platform instead of reannouncing measures as she did Thursday when she talked about increasing minimum wage and cutting business tax.

“Where’s your platform?” bellowed one television reporter when she was finished touring Toronto’s Paintbox Catering and Bistro.

“We are rolling out a few other ideas over the next couple of days and we will certainly have not only our full platform . . . but also the costing as well,” said Horwath, who refused to say when that would happen.

“I will be laying out the specifics when the platform comes forward,” she said before her handlers hustled her away from reporters.

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The Liberals’ platform is the May 1 budget, which failed to pass, and the Tories have not been shy about where they are heading, including cutting 100,000 public sector jobs, freezing teacher salaries and suspending financial assistance to students and seniors.

Liberal campaign spokeswoman Rebecca MacKenzie said it only stands to reason there is no NDP platform.

“No one knows anymore what Andrea Horwath stands for so it’s not surprising the NDP is having a hard time writing it down in a platform,’ MacKenzie said.

Asked about polls showing the New Democrats losing ground, Horwath said, “There are many, many days left in this campaign where we are really just starting out.

“Our platform is one that has some very sensible ideas in it . . . that respond to the priorities of Ontarians and I want to make sure that Ontarians know that they have an option when it comes to their vote on June 12.”

As she did on May 6, Horwath said she would increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour over two years while slightly cutting the corporate tax rate for small business to 3 per cent from 4.5 per cent or by some $90 million a year.

‎”There are over a half a million people (in Ontario) who are working for minimum wage. And that is not a good situation,” she said.

She said minimum wage jobs used to be an entry point in the workforce, but have become a full-time wage for too many people.

While her increase is $1 an hour more than what the Liberals have called for, it still falls short of the $14 an hour social activists say is needed.

“For far too long Ontarians have been told that supporting both small business owners and standing up for hard working people can’t be done, that they are competing interests,” she said.

Horwath claimed that businesses are not opposed to raising minimum wage — “what they have told me is that they want a predictable minimum wage so they can run their businesses responsibly.”

Howarth said these same small business owners resent government handouts of billions of dollars to large corporations that don’t reinvest in Ontario.

Plamen Petkov, vice president for the Ontario branch of Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), said while most small business pay above minimum, the increase to $12 an hour would be particularly hard on the restaurant industry, which relies heavily on part-time help.

As for the business tax decrease offsetting the hourly wage hike, he said, “It may help some but not necessarily all, Especially for those who are struggling, this is not going to provide any relief to them.”

Horwath head to Sarnia Thursday night with for an event there Friday morning and expects to make several stops on the return trip to Toronto.

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